Jorge Braga de Macedo Interdisciplinary Background  (Lisbon Law School) and Early Professional Experience

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My first degree was a  "Baccalauréat" in Experimental Sciences granted from the University of Toulouse, France, in July 1964, after 12 years spent at the Lycée Français Charles Lepierre.
After a year spent in Paris, I went to a Portuguese high school to qualify for entry into the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, from where I obtained a LL.B. in July 1971.
I had obtained then a Fulbright scholarship to study in the US and began graduate study in Economics at Yale University in September. I obtained an M.A. in International Relations (Economics) in September 1973 but had to postpone my transfering into the Ph.D program in Economics because of the military service.

My interest on international financial markets began in the Spring of 1969 as I was preparing a term paper on  the Portuguese external debt and arranged to visit London, Paris and New York to gather material on the private placements and public loans to the Republic of Portugal. Using material gathered during interviews with market participants in Europe and the United States, I then published a description of the eurobond market (entry nº 1) and an account of the Portuguese external debt, which appeared in a series of the Ministry of Finance (entry nº 2).
Much later, this experience led me to engineer the return of the Republic to the international bond market in 1993 (entry nº 152).

It has also helped me advise potential borrowers on the terms of their access to international financial markets.

During my military service in the Portuguese Army (October 1973-October 1975), I was a teaching assistant in the Principles of Economics course at the Lisbon Law School (with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa) between October 1973 and July 1974.

I tought international economics and development at the Luanda School of Economics the following academic year. This created an interest in African and lusophone affairs, which has continued to date.

Upon return from Angola I joined the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP) and began consulting on economic and financial matters for the Confederation of Portuguese Industry (CIP), a position I kept until leaving for the European Commission in Brussels in December 1988.

In August 1984 I was appointed a member of the Tax Reform Commission in the Ministry of Finance. I kept this position for 4 years and made a proposal for a linear tax schedule (entries nº 92 and nº 93) which was not accepted.

Entries from list of publications

nº 1 A Dívida Externa Portuguesa, Lisbon, Centro for Fiscal Studies, Ministry of Finance, 1970.

nº 2 O Mercado das Euro-emissões, Revista Bancária, January 1970.

nº 92. Uma Reforma Fiscal para 1992: Imposto Linear Único sobre o Rendimento (with Vítor Gaspar), in Nova Economia em Portugal, Estudos em Homenagem a António Manuel Pinto Barbosa, Lisbon: Nova University Press, 1989.

nº 93 Imposto Linear Único sobre o Rendimento: Perspectivas e Oportunidades para a Reforma Fiscal em Portugal (with Vitor Gaspar e Luis Morais Sarmento) Nova Economics Working Paper nº 108, January 1989.

nº 152. Crises? What crises? Escudo from ECU to EMU, Nova Economics Working Paper nº 313, December 1997.
 
 
 

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